Where Is The Way Out?

Jack Kerouac is one of the Beat Generation writers in the1950s. His masterpiece On the Road is regarded as a classic of the Beat Generation. It is a picaresque novel of romance and black humor and its story comes from the personal experiences of Kerouac and his friends which involve many journeys back and forth across America. In On the Road, Kerouac breaks through the traditional creative style and creates a new writing style—spontaneous writing. Besides, Kerouac’s description of the Beats’ behavior is the subversion of the traditional morality and authority. There are few researches which analyse this novel from the postmodernist aspects. In the light of this situation, this thesis attempts to analyse the postmodernist features of this novel, with the application of Fredric Jameson and Jean-Fran ois Lyotard’s theories. In so doing, it concludes that On the Road has strong characteristics of postmodern literature and intends to further our understanding of On the Road.This thesis, based on postmodernist theories presented by Fredric Jameson and Jean-Fran ois Lyotard, intends to analyz On the Road, focusing on its three most obviously postmodernist features: subversiveness, uncertainty and diversity. Firstly, Kerouac depicts the Beats in On the Road, who are young people, feel something wrong with the society, breaking through the constraints of the existing institution, such as drug absorption, promiscuous sex, and violation of laws and disciplines. Secondly, in order to free from this stifling American society, they take actions, including a series of movement, infatuation with jazz and turning to primitive culture, trying to seek a way out. The subversion of the existing institution and the traditional culture, fully embodies the postmodernist features of On the Road. Finally, Kerouac breaks through the traditional way of narration, and creates a new method—spontaneous writing; because of the special writing style, the novel become open, and the theme is diversified and uncertain. These features also reflect the postmodernist features of On the Road. Above aspects compose the main contents of this thesis.Based on detailed analysis of the novel, the thesis draws the conclusion that, On the Road has strong characteristics of postmodern literature. These features illustrate that the Beats who were influenced by the very condition have formed a de-centered ideology and multi-value orientation. Because of the ideology, the Beats break through the constraints of the society and find the real “road” to pursue the meaning of life.